FBI Investigating Assault by Most Powerful Union Boss in Philly
You can tell the power of unions is declining because the vic didn't end up washing ashore or under twenty pounds of concrete in a construction site.
Joshua Keesee, a 36-year-old non-union electrician, told police he was working at a job in South Philadelphia that was being picketed by Dougherty’s IBEW Local 98 back on January 21. Keesee said he was on the 1300 block of South 3rd Street around 8:30 a.m. that day when he was approached by Dougherty and three other men. Keesee told police they began arguing over a union sticker that was attached to his vehicle.
Keesee said the argument escalated into violence and accused Dougherty and the three men of punching and kicking him. He then said they fled in a Lincoln Navigator. Keesee refused medical treatment but still filed a police report which prompted an investigation.
A video of the aftermath shows a man being pulled by another man along 3rd street as Dougherty and three to four men walk towards them. A man walking with Dougherty also appears to be bleeding from his head.
Keesee’s attorney Robert Mozenter told NBC10 the altercation stemmed from the fact that his client is not a union worker.
“It’s clearly a labor issue,” Mozenter said. “What is a union boss doing on the street at 8:15? Dougherty approached him, hit him with a left that broke his nose and a right that was partially blocked. The other men jumped in and pummeled him.”
Dougherty is arguably the most powerful union boss in Philly.
The most powerful labor man in the City of Brother Love just expanded his purview.
In addition to serving as Business Manager of IBEW 98, John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty will soon lead another labor union based in Philadelphia.
According to Chris Brennan of the Inquirer, Johnny Doc will take over as Business Manager of the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council.
How powerful?
"He got the Supreme Court, with his brother. He got city council. He worked out a deal with the Northwest, for Cherelle Parker and for (Derek) Green. So he’s got two more people he has some control over, and he will have the mayor’s office now.”
That would be Judge Kevin Dougherty. And the party is the Democrats. So who exactly is supposed to investigate this assault? That's proving to be a problem.
Keesee's lawyer, Robert Mozenter, said detectives told him they had urged the District Attorney's Office to arrest Dougherty and the men with him on aggravated assault charges. But, Mozenter said, District Attorney Seth Williams instead referred the case to state Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane.
Nobody wants to run afoul of Dougherty. But Kathleen Kane is a scandal-ridden Democratic hack whose attempts to smear her way into staying in office have failed, so that she's out. And she received money from the perp, so she had to recuse herself. That apparently leaves the FBI.
The FBI and the state Attorney General's Office are investigating the confrontation in which union leader John J. Dougherty punched a nonunion contractor at a South Philadelphia worksite.
State prosecutors took on the case Tuesday, accepting a referral by Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams. Williams said his "long-standing professional relationship" with Dougherty barred him from handling the matter.
A spokesman for Attorney General Kathleen Kane said her office will now weigh whether to charge Dougherty and three other union members who allegedly pummeled the contractor. But Kane spokesman Chuck Ardo said the decision would not be made by Kane, but by other prosecutors on her staff. The attorney general will not have a role in the decision, he said, because she, too, faces a conflict because of her relationship with Dougherty.
Because the Democratic Party is only one step away from a mob movie. And the FBI had already been probing our union sweetheart for some time now.
With command of a 3,800-member union - Local 98 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers - and a multimillion-dollar campaign warchest, Dougherty had see his power grow in recent years. Dougherty, a Democrat, was a key backer of Mayor Kenney in his election last year.
Dougherty has been seen as reshaping his image of late, saying he was focusing more on policy and less on politics.
And that was policy alright.
The FBI alleged in a 2006 request for a search warrant that Philadelphia labor leader John J. Dougherty's bank records showed a pattern of deposits and withdrawals of "substantial amounts of cash" in "what appears to be an effort to conceal financial dealings."
From 2002 to 2005, the FBI said, Dougherty deposited about $106,000 in cash that could not be traced to any known source, according to a copy of the warrant application that surfaced this week in a lawsuit.
The FBI also alleged in 2006 that it had evidence that Dougherty received about $300,000 in free renovations on his South Philadelphia home.
The FBI said Donald Dougherty was by far the biggest recipient of help from a union program to subsidize union contractors facing stiff competition from nonunion firms, according to the warrant application. Between 2000 and 2005, his business received $998,000 through the Job Recovery Program, as it was known. That was nearly twice as much as any other company.
In 2008, Donald Dougherty was sentenced to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges that included avoiding making $1 million in required contributions to the union's employee benefits plan.
Remember, it's all about protecting the workers. Like the mafia is about protecting restaurants.